The Golden Poluo in Sogdiana: an In-depth Analysis of the Suishu and Tongdian Passages

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Abstract

This paper is based on our preparation of the seminar ‘Nouvelle approche des sources chinoises (principalement le Tongdian) sur l’Asie centrale à l’ouest des Pamirs’ at the Collège de France since autumn 2020. We assume that the ‘golden poluo’ (ultimately from Sanskrit pātra- ?) mentioned in the entry on Cao (Ishtīkhan) in the Suishu was a huge container of sharbat or another beverage or soup, serving the poor people and worshippers around the temple of Takhsīch. The big cauldron at Khodja Akhmed Yasawi (Kazakhstan) may be a continuation of this Zoroastrian practice, of which evidence in the Anthologie de Zādspram is detectable. As to the gold poluo presented by the Tsenpo of Tubo to the Tang court in 658 and the silver one by the king of Qiuci in 675, they were both likely wine drinking vessels carefully chosen for celebrating the restoration of the Tang power in the Tarim Basin after the turbulence in the middle 650s and in the late 660s, respectively.

About the authors

Frantz Grenet

Collège de France

Email: frantz.grenet@college-de-france.fr

PhD, Professor

France, Paris

Chao-jung Ching

Collège de France

Author for correspondence.
Email: ching.cj@gmail.com

(Dr.), PhD, Maître de conférences associée

France, Paris

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2. Fig. 1. The Northern tradition of ancient Chinese drinking vessels (Reproduced from Fig. 9 in Hamada 1933)

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3. Fig. 2 The Southern tradition of ancient Chinese drinking vessels; [lower-right] Cups from Six Dynasties to the Tang period (Reproduced from Fig. 10 in Hamada 1933)

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4. Fig. 3 Bowl with Sogdian inscription, 7th–8th cc. Diameter of mouth = 6.5 cm(reproduced from Plate XLI in Smirnov 1909)

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5. Fig. 4 Relief and inscription on the Stroganoff Bowl, 5th c., inscribed later. Diameter of mouth = 14.5 cm (reproduced from Fig. 10 in Weitzmann 1943)

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6. Fig. 5 A Chinese ceramic poluo, early 7th c. A.D. h. = 4.8 cm; o =12 cm. Accession Number: 50.1963a. Bequest of Charles Bain Hoyt—Charles Bain Hoyt Collection Photograph c [28 Sept. 2021] Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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7. Fig. 6 The inscription on the base of the ceramic bowl 50.1963a Bequest of Charles Bain Hoyt—Charles Bain Hoyt Collection Photograph c [28 Sept. 2021] Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

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